Boyle suggests that Mungo Park's African expeditions are somehow responsible for the advent of the Romantic Age of literature. One of the main characteristics of the Romantic Age was the introduction of exotic places and themes into literature, and Park's African adventures are fit subject matter for Romantic literature. At the end of Part One of the novel, when Park returns to London after his first African expedition, Boyle suggests that London represents the eighteenth century's concepts of Neoclassicism and Enlightenment while Africa represents the Romantic Age.

As Part Two begins, Park is having trouble writing about his African experiences. In trying to adjust from the active life of an explorer to the contemplative life of an author, Park must translate his Romantic adventures into terms that are understandable to the Neoclassical sensibilities of the London readership. By writing about his adventure, he must regress intellectually by stepping...